The role of men of religion

10/01/2017

Ahmad Al-Sarraf

A cleric of any religion has a duty to perform and the need for this duty increases or decreases with the degree of progress or failure of society.

The ratio of the number of men of religion to the total number of population differs from one society to another and is usually linked to the number of educated people in society, the more educated the people are in society the less clerics are and vice versa.

The only exception to this rule, perhaps in history where the number of men has been growing since almost past half a century is the Gulf communities where the number of educated people, doctors, engineers, researchers, scientists and academics is growing parallel to the number of the clergy.

The reason behind this phenomenon is the financial boom on the one hand and the increasing role of clerics in society since religion has become a tool to achieve and carry out the plans of the State.

Therefore we witnessed a change in the role of the clerics which became more attractive because of the profits, money and influence that could be gained after the spread of religious TV satellite channels.

The introducers of these channels have become stars overnight and now they compete with singers and film stars. Their influence and political significance has come at the expense of faith and interest shown by the society.

Therefore it was not strange for those who forged the PhD degrees to resort to religion and contest parliamentary elections, in the belief there are those who are still convinced that they are the best to represent them in the National Assembly.

India’s Mahatma Gandhi said: “A man who works a little for humanity is better than one thousand people praying”. This is actually what we need, people who work for the sake of humanity and not ignorant candidates, traders, ministers or politicians.

I do not know what is the relation between these clerics especially the Salafist and the Muslim Brotherhood and others and elections and their dirty political games and their intervention to support one candidate against another although it has been proven that that particular candidate is corrupt.

What I mean is particularly supporting the candidates who had earlier called for boycotting the elections in the name of democracy, candidates who do not believe in the principles of permanent friends but permanent interests.

What role these clerics have in the innovations on the Internet, WhatsApp groups and battles on Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook? Are these applications not innovations? “Every innovation is a misguidance and every misguidance spells hell fire.”

Why was a cleric assaulted while shopping in London? It is perhaps because of his role in deceiving hundreds of young men and sending them to their deaths and then opting to go on a shopping spree in London.

How can his followers believe in what he once said in a TV interview that the angels are riding white horses and fighting with the Mujahedeen in Syria? Or that it rained heavily in Riqqa, the Capital of the Islamic State to quench the thirst of the people after water tanks ran out of water?

Our societies have been afflicted by ignorance and superstitions. It is time to stop all this nonsense.